Ange Postecoglou defended his team after Tottenham delivered an underwhelming performance in a 1-1 draw against Fulham.
Spurs aimed to stay close to London rivals Arsenal and Chelsea in the Premier League but couldn’t capitalise against the Cottagers.
Brennan Johnson struck a volley from Timo Werner’s assist, marking his 10th goal of the season and providing a lift for a Spurs side that was missing Dominic Solanke due to illness.
Fulham, however, equalised when substitute Tom Cairney fired past Fraser Forster in the 67th minute, although Cairney was later sent off following a VAR review for a dangerous tackle on Kulusevski.
This result leaves Tottenham in seventh place, just a week after their impressive 4-0 victory over Manchester City.
Despite the setback, Postecoglou emphasised the need to shield his players amid increasing injury and availability issues.
“We’re going to have to protect our players because as I said, we’re within our numbers and Deki has played every minute. I’ve rarely subbed him off,” Postecoglou said.
“It’s too easy to say let’s just play like we did against Man City every game!”
Ange Postecoglou insists @SpursOfficial are still in good shape despite a disappointing home draw with @FulhamFC 👇
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— Hayters TV (@HaytersTV) December 1, 2024
“So, we’ve just got to be careful with him and with a few others, but at the moment we just don’t have too many options, so we’ve just got to try and manage them the best we can and obviously that affects performance.
“It’s too easy to say, well, let’s just play like we did against Man City every game.
“And it somehow again seems with this club that whatever it is that we do well is then used as a millstone to bring us down at every other opportunity.
“I guess from my perspective, as I keep saying, it’s really important that we don’t react to any of that and just stay focused.
“I just sometimes feel like, especially the players we’ve got at the moment, they’re just working really hard for this football club to try and progress to where we want to be.
“We’re in good shape, we’re still in good shape. We’re still in a decent position in the league.
“We’re still in the Carabao Cup, we’re in a decent position in Europe, so it’s about us maintaining our focus on continuing to develop.”
